Match Game
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: This was not in Tony's resume as an Avenger, Shield had initiated the 'match' program. The program to give super humans like the Cap, Barnes, and Banner their ideal mate. Only problem was that if he let Shield run the program- they would only fuck things up. So it was up to him to find miss right. Izuku Midoriya, apparently was Miss right. Steve, Bucky, Banner/fem Izuku pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry for the long wait on some updates and stuff.**

 **I've been working on various things- like branching out my writing on Fanfiction, dealing with a shit load of paper work from when my hubby had his stroke last year on the tenth of Dec. And of course preparing for his immediate release from the hospital and trying to figure out ways to make ends meet since I'm disabled and only make about $350.00 monthly and our average living expenses are closer to $700-800 dollars or so monthly.**

 **And Tim currently isn't on SSI or disability.**

 **We've had a terrible time of it so far and I've been so stressed that updates are few and far between. I'm sorry if this makes no sense whatsoever.**

* * *

"Is everything at the tower at the ready for Roger's, Banner, and Barnes match-"

"Everything is as ready as it's going to get," He cut off the director of shield as he cast an angry glare at the man before saying, "I've been working non stop for the past week in a half to make the perfect living space for... _ya know_."

Fury scowled before saying, "It was my understanding that the 'bonding' would take place immediately between the match, and Roger's, Barnes and Banner."

Tony snorted at the man's arrogance and leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes for a moment to stave off the impending headache that he was getting from this entire mess. The 'match' that Fury kept refurring to was some poor girl/woman between the ages of eighteen and thirty. The age was specific because sometimes people liked their matched companion to give them children and god knew that they couldn't do that if they were fucking sterile.

Anyways, there were very specific personality traits as well as physical ones that the girls/women had to pass before they were even remotely considered as potential mates for those with super human abilities.

Steve, and Barnes- both as super soldiers, couldn't be given an ordinary girl/woman as a mate. And neither could Banner, though Tony knew that he would fight being bonded to anyone for any reason tooth and nail. Not that Tony could blame him any. He had a massive green rage monster sized chip on his shoulder and liked his damned privacy.

Which was why the girl/woman chosen as a match for the three by his program, was one with super powers of her own.

The person in question was one Midoriya Izuku, age eighteen, nationality Japanese. She had come to the U.S on a student visa after earning a scholarship at a local college. She liked cooking gourmet meals, writing, sketching, photography, music, dancing and kids.

She was also beautiful enough to have been scouted as a fucking model nine times since coming to the U.S. if the one picture he'd come across in her file had been any indication to go by. Making his three fav super powered men very, _very_ lucky indeed.

And from what he'd read up on her in her file and seen online, the kid was a damned Avenger in her own right back in Japan. Her super powers were all kinds of amazing. Like Hulk and Thor wrapped up in one tiny package kind of amazing.

According to the files, the girl was no damned slouch when it came to a fight. Her record was outstanding. Beating even the Caps old record from World War two.

Four thousand nine hundred and seventy lives saved. And at least fifty six major fights with super villains that he'd sort of heard of.

They hadn't been as bad as Doctor Doom or Hydra, but some of the stuff that some of them had done to innocent people was pretty messed up. Like Barnes back when Hydra had him kind of bad. Though there hadn't been so much kidnapping as there was capture, experimentation, rape, forced impregnation and then experimentation on the infants that caused defects and very slow and agonizing death among other things.

She'd had some friends with powers too, though all of them were dead now with the exception of three or so of them. All of whom he had contacted and gotten to sign a non disclosure agreement along with another contract that allowed him to check up on them from time to time and vice versa as part of the 'match' agreement.

They had signed easily enough. Though some of them were more than a little bit angry at the moment. In fact they were flat out _pissed_ about the whole match thing and who Izuku was being paired up with.

Apparently they hadn't been terribly impressed by the Cap, Barnes nor Banner and felt that personally she could do much better. Tony didn't say it aloud, but they were probably right. Right now he wasn't all that sure the match would work out for any of the four. But he knew that it was important that it was at least attempted.

That was why he was going to secretly move Midoriya into the tower in another hour or so while he sent the rest of the Avenger's on a wild goose chase out of the country for a bit. He didn't want anyone attacking the girl if she just showed up.

He'd seen the videos of her powers and wasn't overly fond of the idea of her smashing his home like the Hulk smashed baddies.

"I'll leave you to it then." Fury said after a length of time of total silence. He could see Starks misgivings about the match and he needed this to happen. He needed Captian America, Sargent Barnes, and Banner bonded to the girl matched to them...desperately.

He needed to be able to control them if the need arose. Especially Barnes and Banner. The two were loose cannons as far as he was concerned and he needed something to make them more vulnerable.

Cutting the transmission off, Tony ignored the last part since it held no relevance to anything anyways and instead tried to focus on what he had to do. Sighing because he knew that if this didn't work, Shield would likely try to match the guys with an assassin that really would _kill_ them in their sleep- he changed gears and started coming up with the fake emergency situation that was needed to get everyone out of the tower so that he could move Izuku in.


	2. Chapter 2

Izuku had just finished packing the last of her things away and closed the box before sitting back on her heels with a sigh. She was still sort of in a state of disbelief. Unable to comprehend just why she had been chosen as a match for three strange men, all of whom had super human abilities.

I mean, she had only been in the U.S for a year in a half to attend school and help her former teacher/hero, Toshinori Yagi, also known in japan as All Might, could settle down into his old home so that he could spend the rest of his days in peace and quiet.

She only got a million phone calls and texts from him every other day where he complained of boredom. Apparently now that he was finally officially retired, after nearly five decades of fighting villains, the peace and quiet were slowly but surely driving her former teacher/hero to utter madness.

But then she supposed that that was to be expected after fighting for so long.

Looking around the now vacant apartment that she had called her home only a week ago, she felt a painful ache in the center of her chest where her heart was.

This reminded her of when she had to leave Japan for her college scholarship.

She had recalled the last time that she had seen her mom and her friends together. Of course that had been three months before most of her friends had been wiped out, leaving Katsuki, Shoto, Froppy, and Iida. All of whom video chatted and called and texted her almost daily to check up on her.

And all of them weren't taking the whole...match thing very well.

In fact the same day that she received the letter letting her know of what was going to happen, she had called Katsuki in tears, almost hysterical and he had called the others while he quickly packed a bag and booked an airplane ticket. Fully intending to show up on her doorstep and see her face to face and ask her what the hell was going on and who he had to kill.

Shoto and Iida had beat him to the airport with their own bags in tow. However none had boarded the plane since Froppy had shown up and told them to simply butt out and be there for her in another way.

The guys were none too pleased with her at the moment either. But Froppy didn't give a damn.

She had other things to worry about than the guy's and their hurt feelings. Though she did call on occasion to see how she was holding up. The most interesting phone call had come from Toshinori once he had found out about the whole 'match' thing.

Izuku didn't think she had ever heard such foul language from him before.

So instead of listening to him carry on like Katsuki, she had simply put the phone down and walked away and come back fifteen minutes later when he had finally run out of steam. He had been understandably, displeased at the prospect of her being bonded to three men at once.

Especially since matches like hers were practically unheard of in Japan.

I mean there was arranged marriages and then there were 'arranged marriages'. One was a strictly business sort of thing and the other involved actually saying vows, wearing a ring on one's ring finger, sleeping with the other person and sometimes even children.

And it wasn't always done willingly.

She and Toshinori had done their research into such matches. And the number of people that abused their match, raped them, locked them away and even drove them to kill themselves. All of those numbers were utterly staggering. And because so few things were reported to the authorities- nothing was done to abolish the system. Much less improve it to make it safer for the person being matched to others.

It was stupid really. But from the little bit of information alone, Toshi had weaseled a promise out of her that if anyone ever tried to or did anything remotely questionable to her- she was to knock their teeth down their throat and walk away. Not run, running away was for cowards and he hadn't trained her to be a damned coward. No- she was to _walk_. Own up to the fact that she had damaged another person- possibly really badly- and wear it like a damned shield.

Fuck any vows and matches and bonds.

She wasn't anyone's goddamned whipping boy/doormat. And she wasn't to act like one.

After getting her promise Toshinori had felt somewhat better about leaving her in the hands of strangers. At least enough to tell her that he'd be checking in on her soon and then hung up. That was several days ago. And now- now she was gearing up to move into a strange place full of strange people.

She didn't know who these Avenger's were, and frankly she wasn't sure that she wanted to know.

Hearing the loud rap of knuckles on her apartment door, she turned her head and waited for whoever was on the other side to speak up and say something to identify themselves. After all, she had already made the mistake of opening her door once and had been stabbed for her efforts by a would be thief.

"Miss Midoriya! My name is Happy Hogan, I work for Mr. Stark. I'm out here with the moving crew. I'm to take you over to the tower while they collect your things."

Sighing again, Izuku tiredly scrubbed her face with her hands and then got up to go open the door. And promptly tripped with a loud yelp when she realized that one of her legs had gone totally numb while she had been sitting.

She must have missed the guy calling out to her several times while she had tried to get back up, because one moment she was trying to rise up from the floor and the next her door was being kicked in by an overly concerned heavy set guy in a nice expensive suit, wielding a small hand held gun.

He looked around the room before locating her, half lying on the floor and quickly moved to help her up as he asked her repeatedly if she was alright. Izuku merely blushed and squeaked out that's he was fine as he holstered the gun.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony was waiting in the lobby of the tower in a grease stained shirt and torn jeans when Miss Midoriya finally showed up with Happy close on her heels. The young woman was wearing semi nice- if dust covered- mint and aquamarine colored off the shoulder butterfly patterned long sleeved cotton sweater, a pair of faded off white, torn denim jeans, some stylish beige colored ankle boots with wide three inch heels.

The only jewelry she wore was a small oval sapphire and diamond, white gold scroll work ring on a pretty pearl necklace around her neck, and a pair of small, delicate pearl earrings. Izuku wasn't wearing any makeup aside from a touch of lip gloss. Which was nice since she didn't really need anything to enhance her beauty anyways, in Tony's opinion.

Her long blackish-green hair was tied back from her face and shoulders in pigtails, leaving only the fringe of her long bangs to fall into her wide innocent looking emerald eyes and frame the rest of her face fetchingly.

All in all he was fairly certain that the Capcicle and Barnes would take one look at those wide puppy-like eyes of hers and lay their hearts at her feet automatically.

Banner however was still a concern to him. But he'd have to deal with the big mean green smashing machine later. Much, much later. Right now he had a lady to introduce himself too and charm.

Stepping forward as she drew closer, he noticed that she was eyeing him in a wary manner and felt the need to inwardly cringe at whatever she had found online or read that had given her such a weird or bad impression of him before even meeting him in person.

Forcing himself to smile politely, he reached out and took her hand as he said, "Hi, I'm Tony Stark. The guy who ran the algorithm that matched you with Steve Rogers, James Barnes and Bruce Banner. Any information needed on the three to help you get to know them as Avengers will be at your disposal both _before_ and _after_ you have met the three in person. Which will happen sometime tomorrow morning at breakfast. Which is at eight sharp. Try not to be late otherwise you'll starve."

Tony finally took a breath before going on to say, "The guys that you've been matched with all have super metabolism's, so they tend to eat a lot more than normal. Which is perfect since you like to cook and all three are so old fashioned that they would do the dishes if they were fed a nice homecooked meal that didn't come from a takeout place."

"You're room is on the thirty fifth floor, the same floor as the Capcicle and Frosty the Russian snowman. They are right across the hall from your room just in case you need anything. Like a cup of sugar. Or maybe a few rounds of mind blowing threesome." He muttered a bit under his breath before going on to say.

"I've already programed you into the tower's security system and gotten you a pass card ready so that you can wander around and explore whenever you finish settling in. There is just two or three dozen places that you can't go- don't take it personally. Those area's are labs full of dangerous things and experiments and no one but us science guys are allowed unless I give someone access personally. Are you going to need any help getting your stuff upstairs?" Tony asked curiously as he looked down at Izuku whom had been strangely silent as he had prattled on endlessly for what must have seemed like forever to her.

Izuku upon realizing that he was finally talking to her instead of at her, tilted her head back and looked up at him since he towered over her by several inches. "O-Oh no. I can get everything up just fine," She said with a shy smile that turned into a little bit of a grimace before she turned her head away and muttered. "After all I'm stronger than I look."

Tony didn't say anything despite wanting to. _Badly_.

However as much as he wanted to comment on her physical strength and what little bit he knew about it- he didn't fancy pissing her off and getting backhanded through a wall. So instead he shifted gears and decided to change topics. "Okay," He said as he clasped his hands in front of him, loudly and then started to rub his palms together like a cartoon villain as he then said, "How about we go check out your room?"

"Uh- Okay." Izuku said awkwardly as she let him lead her over to the nearest elevator and climb inside. Tony pushed the button for the floor that he had mentioned earlier in his ramblings and the elevator dinged as it closed and started to move.

Izuku silently huffed and closed her eyes for a moment to stave off the sudden bout of dizziness that she was feeling as the damned thing climbed higher and higher before finally coming to a stop at the thirty fifth floor. Stepping off of the elevator, Izuku followed Tony down the hall a little ways. Taking note of the various sketches and acrylic paintings of landscapes and people hanging up on the walls.

There were some truly interesting and breathtaking pictures there, if not for the fact that some were a little oddly out of place in the billionaire's home, she might not have had questions.

Tony however didn't give her a chance to ask them before saying, "They're the Caps. I'll say this for the old fart, the man has some damned talented hands when it comes to art," And then they passed a few weird looking finger paintings, at which point Tony said. "Barnes did those after being deprogramed as the Winter Soldier. It was part of his therapy... He's gotten better since then, though he still isn't as good as the Cap."

What does one say to that?

All Izuku could think of was an unintelligible, _"Uh..."_ As he continued to lead her down the hall before coming to a stop in front of a door.

"Friday, open Izuku's apartment door please." Tony said aloud before the door in front of him slid open revealing an large spacious area that Izuku meekly peeked through the door at before feeling Tony's hand on her back, between her shoulders- pushing her forward into the room.

"I said check out the room. Go check out the paint job, the furniture, the kitchen area- hell even see the large screen plasma TV, not act like a prisoner of war." Tony scolded her in a soft and gentle tone.

"Oh. Sorry, I kind of get...wary of unknown spaces." Izuku said as she fidgeted a little bit with her left shirt sleeve.

Tony gave her a look that was almost pitying before saying softly, "I can understand that kid," And he really could. After Afghanistan it had taken him almost a year to feel comfortable in his own home again. "But this is going to be your new home from now on, so you need to get used to things."

Feeling thoroughly chastised, she looked down at her feet for a moment before mumbling out. "I-I know that." But he probably didn't understand that the last time she had walked into unfamiliar territory, she had been shot three times and stabbed two times. None of the wounds had been fatal obviously, but they had been extremely _painful_ and she wasn't all that keen to have it happen again.

"Then go forth child, explore, check out the channels on the TV- hell rent some fricking porn and get in the mood for the guys when they finally come home- do whatever. I've got to run down to the lab and finish up my work before dinner."

Izuku blushed at his suggestion to 'rent' porn and get in the mood and started to stammer out something when he took out his cell and there was a flash of bright light in her face that had him grinning as he did something before flipping the cell shut and placing it back inside of his pants pocket before saying, " _Yeah_ , I'm so going to see if you react like this after sleeping with the guys at least once. Something tells me that if I asked for some juicy details- such as penis size and performance, you'd probably have a stroke. Later kid. See you at dinner."


	4. Chapter 4

The living space that Mr. Stark had fixed up for her was...well amazing. Everything from the furniture to the paint on the walls had been painstakingly chosen specifically with her in mind. And it was all, lovely. However it just wasn't quite...her.

Everything was too expensive. Too lavish. Too.. _.nice_.

Honestly simply walking over to the bed had nearly made her cringe. Still she had done so, and then taken a few pics of the area and sent them to her friends and Toshinori in a couple of texts. Which were predictably answered in various ways by each of them. Katsuki told her to grab her shit and run.

Which was sort of a stupid and pointless bit of advice for him to give her since she didn't know whether or not Mr. Stark would hunt her down or not and drag her back to the tower. And then there were the men that she had been matched with. What would they do if she just grabbed her things and up and disappeared?

Would they hunt her down too? Or be re matched to someone else?

Shoto and Froppy both told her to stay put.

Iida was on the fence.

And Toshinori texted her from the nearest bus stop, he was on his way. Which wasn't going to end well since she was going to have to run out of the tower and go hunt him down later on when he sent her some random text at four a.m. because he didn't know where the hell he was or how to get home anymore. And maybe because someone had mugged him and taken his sneakers, and his feet were really, really cold.

Sadly weirder things have happened to her poor former teacher since he had moved home. Hell, weirder things had happened to her too. Though her shoes usually stayed on her feet unless she removed them herself.

Absently noting the time after texting Toshinori to go home and stay there because she didn't feel like running around New York later when it was supposed to start raining. She then put her phone away and then decided to go see if she could find Mr. Stark and see if dinner was ready yet.

She was kind of hungry after her long day of packing and emotional upheaval.

Moving across her room towards the door, she started to step through when she heard two male voices speak from the other side of the door. Both sounded...frustrated. And maybe a little bit angry as well.

Curious, she placed her hand on the door and tilted her head to the side a little bit and listened hard.

"I can't believe that we went on a wild goose chase!" The first one said in a angry growl.

"Across the country at that. I mean, who does that?" Came the more subdued tone of the second.

"Shield," The word was spat before the tone lightened some. "Obviously."

"Yeah. Obviously."

Izuku stayed quiet as she tracked the sounds of their heavy foot falls until they seemed to fade and did her best to calm herself. There was no way that those guys had been two of the ones that she had been matched too. And even if they were...well, she just wasn't ready to meet them face to face just yet.

Once she was sure that the coast was clear, she opened the door and slowly started to peek out into the hallway and thought that she was in the clear when she caught a sudden blur of movement out of the corner of her eye and quickly moved herself out of the way just in time for a bionic arm to slam into the door frame where her head had previously been, breaking part of it away.

While another blur, this time a tall, muscular blond moved in and grabbed her before she could so much as react or get into a fighting stance and slammed her into the wall and held her in place by her throat as he and his friend both glared at her for a moment before he growled out, "Who the hell are you?"

She made a choking sound as his fingers dug into her neck, slowly squeezing the life out of her when his friend said something to the blond that had him quickly dropping her and saying in an almost nervous manner, "Please tell me that you aren't a new intern or that you aren't the girl that Bucky, Bruce and I were matched with."

She coughed a few times and slowly rubbed at her sore throat for a moment before then rasping out roughly in between taking deep, wheezing breaths, "Okay. I won't tell you." To which both men paled a little bit and started freaking out.

 _Oh sure now they freak out,_ Izuku thought almost bitterly. _They couldn't simply have freaked out first._ It certainly would have saved her a sore throat and some serious swelling and bruising if they had.

 _Stupid boys._ She thought as the brunette knelt down and gently removed her hand from her neck and started to check it over as the blond stood by with a shell shocked sort of expression on his face. The man had totally checked out for the moment. _Wonderful._ If she ever had the man's children- she'd be kicking his ass regularly for freezing up and being totally useless while she was in labor or something.

"Dammit Steve, you really messed up her throat. I doubt that she'll be able to speak for a few days if not longer."

"Well it wasn't like I meant too!" The man snapped. "I thought that she could have been a spy or something. Not some..." The blond guy motioned towards her with his hands and then did this weird sign with his hands as his friend rolled his eyes at him and pipped in.

"Match? Dame? _Possible employee of Stark?_ "

"Yes!" The blond practically shouted at them before going still and then saying in a scandalized tone, "Oh my god, what if she's a fan? What if she's a fan that broke in wanting a little memento or something and she stole a pair of our boxers or something?"

The brunette snorted at the absurdity of his friend's pesky thought before saying in a cheeky manner. "Well, she'd have a hard time getting any of those from me- I don't _wear_ underwear."

"Well I _do_. And I'm worried. Quick, search her while she's down!" The big guy said in a frantic tone.

"Oh for Pete's sake Steve knock it off and leave the poor gal alone!" The brunette shouted at the other guy as he started to move in as if he actually intended to search her, causing him to freeze up again as Izuku finally shook herself out of her stupor and with a mental sigh and quietly pushed herself up to her feet, not caring a bit if these guys were watching her like a pair of hawks or not and then turned and walked back into her room and closed the door as best as she could and disappeared into her bedroom.

* * *

The moment that the dame was out of sight and earshot Steve dropped the comedy act and gave Bucky a strange look before asking softly, "Do you think that I hurt her too much?"

"Depends on what you were going for. Bruise chic or corpsy chic."

Steve made a loud growling sound as he covered his face with his hands. His only thoughts at the moment were something along the lines of, _Dammit, dammit, dammit!_ He really hoped that this incident didn't ruin everything with her otherwise he and Bucky would not only spend the rest of their days alone and without the family and stability that they both desperately needed. But Bruce would suffer for their mistake too.

Not only that but Tony and Fury would be riding his ass from now till doomsday.

After all the gal that they had been matched with was supposed to be _theirs_. And contrary to what had just happened, they had been looking forward to formally meeting Izuku Midoriya. If not for the fact that neither of them had known that she was already in the tower, they wouldn't have attacked her as if she were one of Hydra's operatives or something.

The two, the moment that they had caught wind of being matched to someone- had snuck around Tony and his security and pilfered as many files as they could get their hands on about their chosen so that they could get to know her some before meeting her.

And her record was beyond impressive.

Staggeringly so.

At age thirteen she had been involved in a mutant attack and take down. And barely a year in a half later, during her high school years- she had taken down villains more devious and dangerous than Steve and the rest of the Avengers had come up against everyday.

The worst of whom was a mutant with the ability to touch someone and cause them to slowly decay into ash. They had even found video's of some of the incidents that she had taken part in and had seen how she calculated and executed specific attacks, and defenses.

To say that they had both been impressed would be an understatement.

Not only that but Izuku Midoriya was intelligent, and so damned beautiful that it almost hurt to look at her. Seriously the second that Bucky had seen her photo he had got this weird goofy little grin on his face and giggled. Actually giggled. Almost like a little kid.

Steve had thought the reaction adorable, and had even decided on locking the two together in the same room at least once or twice to see how Bucky reacted then. Though Steve certainly didn't think that the former Winter Soldier would be beating down any walls to get away from the green eyed goddess.

And Steve, well his reaction to her picture was somewhat more subtle, but there nevertheless.

His entire bedroom was plastered with sketches and paintings of the dame. Some of them were whimsical and innocent. While others were of Izuku in a wedding dress, naked, pregnant- the list sort of went on. But anyone would get the point.

Sighing the blond asked his childhood friend in a small voice, "She's...going to be scared of us after this, isn't she?"

Bucky looked back at the door and then at Steve with a sad expression on his face before muttering bitterly, "Yeah." Leaving Steve with just one thought.

 _Then we'll both have to work hard to make that fear go away._


	5. Chapter 5

Izuku wasn't down for dinner when everyone else was. And Steve and Bucky had both been strangely absent from the affair as well, worrying him somewhat. Which is why once he was finished eating, Tony grabbed Bruce and Thor and headed up to see what had kept Izuku from coming down for the all you could eat pizza buffet.

Stepping off of the elevator with Bruce and Thor in tow, one of whom had been kind enough to grab the girl a plate and pile it high with enough fattening carbs that Tony would be surprised if he didn't have to help roll the kid out of her bedroom from now on.

"Tony what's going on?" Bruce asked for what must have been the millionth time in so many minutes as they slowly made their way down the hall towards the kid's room. He was about to respond to Bruce's question when Tony noticed that some of the doorframe and wall were lying in little crushed bits and pieces.

Feeling something akin to the pit of his stomach dropping down to the soles of his feet, Tony quickly hurried over to the door and began to try and pry it open while yelling, "Kid? Kid? Hey are you okay? Friday! Locate Izuku!"

Seeing Tony freak out was nothing new to Bruce nor Thor but seeing him this frantic. Well, it only happened under extreme circumstances. Not to mention that he was yelling for someone.

That was new.

So naturally the two got curious about what was going on and moved in closer just as Friday pipped up and said, "Midoriya Izuku is lying on the floor in her room. She was attacked earlier by Captain Rogers and Sargent Barnes. My scans do not show her being terribly injured, though from her heartrate and blood pressure- I can easily disconcert that she is in a great deal of emotional distress. Shall I make an attempt to open the door for you sir?"

"Yes! Yes! Open this damned door! Right. Now!" Tony shouted as he lifted his leg and viciously kicked the steel keeping him from the kid, while looking dangerously close to having a nervous breakdown as the door slowly opened for them. No sooner than there was enough space for someone to squeeze through the slight opening, Tony somehow managed to wedge himself through the door and took off straight for the bedroom where he came to a stop several inches away from where Izuku lay.

It didn't look at first like the girl was even breathing, which terrified Tony on so many levels that he felt scared of moving any further. Part of him was afraid to touch her. Fearing that she might in some way lash out.

"Kid? Okay so I'm kind of freaking out here- c-could you maybe show me that you aren't going to attack me if I come closer? Nothing big. Just twitch your fingers or something to let me know that you can hear me." Tony said quickly as Thor and Bruce finally decided to join him inside of the room, both pausing just a few feet behind their friend to see what he was doing.

The moment that they both realized that Tony was speaking to a person- nay, an injured young woman- Bruce and Thor's instincts kicked in and the two quickly pushed Tony aside, causing the man to yelp slightly in surprise while the two moved over to where the woman lay on the floor and knelt down to study the cause of Tony's distress.

Bruce was very cautious and careful as he turned her over onto her back, not wanting Tony to make any foolish attempts at jumping on his back and attacking him if he accidentally harmed her by moving her a bit. Once he had her on her back, and Tony had decided to join them in their hovering- Bruce took several moments to see where the- woman was too wrong a word for the small, petite female lying so still before him.

Child would be more accurate. She looked so, so alarmingly young. Little more than a teen, really. And if she was here in Avenger's tower, and Tony knew about her then that could only mean one thing. She had been matched to someone in the tower.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce put on a small smile for her and shifted gears to his doctor persona knowing that she would likely feel comforted by it as he asked Friday, "Friday, scan the young lady and tell me where she's hurt," He fell silent as he heard Friday say, "Scanning." And looked over at Tony who was so fucking close to losing his shit that it wasn't even funny.

The man was hyperventilating, his dark eyes were wide, his pupils non responsive, his usually healthy olive complexion was as pale as a ghost. Thor was sitting to the side of him, speaking to him in a soft gentle tone. Trying to bring him back from whatever nightmare that he was trapped in as Friday chimed back in and finally told Bruce where the girl was injured.

Upon letting her finish giving him the information needed, he then went to work checking the girl's injuries after carefully sweeping her long near waist length blackish-green hair back from her throat and face.

He had to admit that as soon as he saw her face, he suddenly felt the need to blush. The girl was absolutely adorable! And while he hadn't exactly been wrong about her age, he didn't see much of an issue there for whoever she had been matched too.

Her red rimmed eyes flickered to him for a moment and he could see the prettiest shade of emerald that he had ever seen before in his life before she closed them and didn't open them again. Beside him Tony whimpered as her eyes slid closed, and Thor did the only thing that he could think of to help- he wrapped his arms around the smaller man and hugged him as he cast Bruce a questioning glance to which Bruce ignored before he began checking the girl's throat.

He didn't know how exactly Friday could mistake a swollen trachea as a minor injury when the girl wasn't getting enough air to her lungs- was beyond him. He could already see the faint blue tinge taking it's place around her lips thanks to the raw, swollen and ugly looking bruising around her throat.

"She needs to go to the infirmary, ASAP."

"You take her. I will handle friend Tony." Thor said. Bruce got a fiercely determined look on his face and nodded as he gently scooped the girl up in his arms and practically ran from the room.

* * *

Out in the hall, Steve and Bucky were making their way back towards the room that the dame had disappeared into- fully intending to apologize and maybe see what all the ruckus was about.

Steve knew that he had heard Tony shouting and cussing earlier, and could only hope that he was okay since it wasn't like him to carry on in such a way.

"So how are you going to apologize?"

"On my knees for starters. Maybe swear to be her slave from now on." Steve said in a serious tone. Bucky was silent for several moments before finally saying,

"That's awful kinky, punk. But it just might work. Think she'll like having two slaves?"

Steve was about to respond when Bruce came tearing out of the room the dame had been in carrying the girl in his arms as he made his way towards the elevator. The two soldiers froze up and stared, both noting that the dame wasn't moving. In fact she was eerily still.

"Oh no." Bucky said as he shook his head slowly in disbelief. The dame couldn't have been that injured. Could she? He tilted his head back to look at Steve as Thor came out of the room with Tony who was...hysterical. Honestly the man acted like they had killed the girl or something.

And it was the way that he was acting that began to plant the idea that perhaps they had killed her. They were so wrapped up in their own heads that neither of them saw Stark break away from Thor until the thunder god called out a warning to Steve, mere seconds before Tony's fist connected with his eye.


	6. Chapter 6

Everyone has moments where their mind is filled with such anger and contempt and regret that they can't stand to be around others, much less look at themselves in the mirror when they got out of bed every morning. Sadly, by the time morning came around- this was what Tony, Steve and Bucky were feeling as they each sat in the main living room of the tower.

Tony nursing a practically empty bottle of aged scotch and Steve and Bucky nursing fifteen empty bottles and one full bottle of bitter whiskey while Thor stood watch over them since Clint and Natasha were both strangely absent and had missed all of the ruckus the night before.

Bruce had worked on Izuku for a good hour trying to stabilize her condition, and finally once he was sure that he had and she was resting comfortably, he had gone in search of the others to give whichever person had hurt the girl a tongue lashing that would have Miss Potts frozen from the utter shock.

Yet the moment that he stepped into the main living room area where everyone gathered to watch movies and bond, he froze up in the doorway. Any scathing words that he had, quickly died on his tongue as he took one look at the three men and then cast a questioning glance towards Thor who quickly filled him in.

"Friend Tony, felt the need to avenge the lady."

"Oh. So they broke the girl and he broke their faces. _Nice_ , but I don't _need_ any other patients right now." Bruce said as he eyed the two soldiers as he walked over to Tony and casually plucked his scotch from his fingers right along with his shot glass and handed them off to Thor with the order to drink it all.

Thor looked at the shot glass and the bottle and then shrugged and downed them both in one gulp as Tony rasped, "How is she?"

"Pretty good considering how close she came to slowly suffocating to death. Her neck was so raw and swollen that her trachea was closing and she wasn't getting enough air..." He heard a muffled curse and a whimper and cast a glance at the two soldiers before saying, "I had to reopen her air way, but she's stable and resting comfortably now."

"H-How long will she be-"

"In the infirmary? A few days or until the swelling goes down enough for her to breathe normally. Until then if anyone wants to see her and maybe apologize for what happened-" There was no mistaking the bite of anger in his seemingly mild spoken words as Tony caught the faint flicker of brow changing to radioactive green for the briefest moment before he said with a sinister grin, "Now would be great." Tony, Steve and Bucky were up on their feet and practically running for the door before he finished speaking, each of them desperate to escape the room just in case the Hulk decided to come out and beat the hell out of each of them.

Bruce watched them all flee in terror and let out a low chuckle that was a mite to dark to be mistaken for amusement as Thor clapped him on the shoulder and rumbled close to his ear. "Well played my friend."

The smaller man merely shrugged his shoulders at the compliment. Feeling that it was unnecessary. After what had been done to the girl and how they had found her, he had been feeling...strangely protective of her. The other guy was feeling much the same way too otherwise he wouldn't have changed eye color for a second there.

He supposed that it was both _his_ and the _big guy's_ way of letting the others know just how displeased they were with them for this incident.

* * *

Natasha and Clint had just returned from some down time outside of the tower and were just stepping off of the elevator when Steve, Tony and Bucky practically shoved them back in in some mad scramble that set off warning bells in their minds. "Quick press the button!" Bucky said as he was shoved into the wall by Tony who yelled out,

"I'm pressing, I'm pressing!"

"Why isn't this damned thing closing?" Steve said before letting out a pained yelp as he was elbowed sharply by Natasha whom turned her head and tilted it back some to glare up at him for invading her personal space.

"Just what is wrong with you three?" Nat demanded with her hands on her hips as the doors finally started to slide shut.

The three men just looked at her and Clint warily for a moment before launching into the whole story of the match, Izuku being moved into the tower in secret, Steve and Bucky attacking and injuring her, Tony, Bruce and Thor finding her nearly suffocated in her room and Bruce treating her wounds while Tony snapped and beat the tar out of the Cap and ol Frosty. Or trying to at least. He might have done the two men more damage if stupid Thor hadn't have pulled him off of them.

And upon finishing the story with Bruce's sort of not too subtle threat of unleashing the big green guy on them and fleeing to the elevator- Natasha and Clint had both pretty much gotten the gist of the situation and both sighed and rubbed either the bridge of their nose or at their temples to stave of the impending headache they could feel coming on.

 _Idiots._ The two assassins thought in disbelief. They go out for one night to unwind and the whole damned team falls apart at the seams and starts attacking young girls and each other. _Unbelievable._

Finally Natasha let out a little huff and asked, "And you three are going to the infirmary? To apologize, yes?"

There was a chorus of 'yes's from the three as they looked down at their feet guiltily. _Good_ , Natasha thought. They should feel guilty for a variety of reasons. Not just because of the incident that had taken place earlier, but because the girl was a match to someone in the tower.

Though the program to find the ideal mate or companion for supers had only been in play for about three years, she and Clint knew that if they were ever matched to someone- they would treat them like the rare and precious treasures that they were considering that that person would be theirs.

Their mate. Their companion. Their lifelong friend.

They would be personally taking responsibility for that person. Frankly neither assassin could wait until they were matched with someone. They just hoped that the person that they were matched with had a decent sense of humor. They would have to have one if they were going to live with them in the tower.

Plus Clint was already planning for kids. He'd secretly had a walkin closet in his living quarters converted to a nursery. Complete with furniture, little stuffed animals, a book shelf full of fairy tails and fables and so many Dr. Seuss books that the first time that Natasha had seen them all, she had almost retched from the sheer cuteness of it all.

Not that cute was a bad thing.

After all, she tended to do well with small children and even Banner as long as she was around them for a specific amount of time only per day. She figured that when it came to Clint's hell spawn, she would just be the weird aunt that fed the children candy and cake and ice cream and then gave them back to daddy once they were bouncing off of the walls.

"Good. Clint and I will go with you to make sure that you do so." Nat said as the elevator finally stopped moving and the doors slowly slid open.

"Um, no offense or anything Natasha but I think we can go and apologize to Izuku unsupervised."

"Oh? So you don't really care that the Hulk might still make an appearance and come after you three?" Nat asked in a sly tone that had Tony's teeth on edge as Clint finally pipped in and said cheerfully as he followed Natasha off of the elevator.

"Yeah guys, don't think of this as parental supervision. Think of it as saving your lives."

The three men exchanged a look with each other and sighed. Dammit Clint and Nat both had some very good points. Having them around to witness their apologies to Izuku just might keep them in one piece. "Well you guys, lets go see the lady."

"Yeah." Steve said gloomily followed by a depressed sounding,

"Sure."


End file.
